Surprisingly, many of the lessons I've learned over the years have little to nothing to do with designing buildings. That doesn't mean they weren't worth learning.

Reflection

Monday, November 10, 2014

Choose Your Battles

You have to choose your battles. A few years ago, we went down to Virginia to meet
with the local code officials about an impending project for a preliminary plan review. Every jurisdiction is different in
how they apply the codes and we wanted to get everything straight before we got
close to formally submitting plans for approval.
The Code Official and the Senior Plan Reviewer were there as well as two
representatives from the Fire Marshal’s office. Everything went fine and we asked our
questions and we were able to judge how this jurisdiction was going to be to
work with.

When we ran out of our prepared questions, we asked if anyone
there had any pet peeves or things they like to see. It is good to ask this but it is a bit of a loaded question and can also
be the opener to the proverbial Can ‘O’ Worms.
It turns out the Fire Marshal doesn't really like vinyl siding or
engineered lumber (TGI’s). Their reason
for the aversion: vinyl siding “is like solid gasoline” and “TGI’s fail too
soon”. Now, both of these items are tested
and rated like any other construction material.
Both sides of the table knew that the design called for both, and both
sides also knew that it was perfectly acceptable, according to all prevailing building codes. The fact that they don’t like those materials
really didn't matter much. But for a
response, we listened and nodded our heads and that was it. We all knew those two products would be the project in the end and arguing about it now would only cause our local hosts to feel
less amiable towards the out of town architects. So we basically zipped it while indicated we
understood their point of view.

Melted vinyl siding as a result of a fire. Photo Credit: Scott Eklund/Seattle Post-IntelligencerA little like insanely hot silly string when engulfed, I bet.

But their pet peeves were something I had not heard
before, and they weren't done there. We were only about 2 ½ hours
away from our home office, in basically the same climate zone, but apparently down there mulch in
planting beds will ignite and consume buildings with fire. The Fire Marshal asked that we keep mulch as
far away from the building as possible.
Their cautionary tale is an example I wish I was creative enough to
imagine on my own. Picture it. It’s free Pancake Day at the local IHOP and
the line is wrapped around the building.
(Pancake Day is March 7th in 2018, so mark your calendar).
Someone in line thoughtlessly flicks a lit cigarette into the IHOP’s
mulch bed. Poof – the solid gasoline, I
mean vinyl siding, bursts into flames. No
one was hurt, but many a folk went without their free pancakes.

Mulch fires do happen apparently... Photo Credit: Trappefire.org.

What do you say to that?
In the end we said we would talk to our landscape designer about running
a boarder of pea gravel around the building in lieu of pushing mulch beds right
to the exterior walls. But in reality, we know we wouldn't be able to pay for all that gravel. There was nothing else we could have said to assuage their fears.
Our meeting was over, it was lunch time, and suddenly we were in the
mood for pancakes.